[digiKam-users] Future of digiKam bundles...

[Gilles Caulier]

Hi all users,

I would to give some feedback about the digiKam bundles migration advance...

The current files provided by the project are listed below :

- Linux AppImage 64 bits
- Linux AppImage 32 bits
- Macos Package installer 64 bits (based on Macports)
- Windows installer 64 bits (compiled with MXE - MinGW)
- Windows installer 32 bits (compiled with MXE - MinGW)

Current problems for these bundles are listed below :

- AppImage : not signed, do not support KIO extensions, do not support
ICU (language extension), not published on official repository.
- MacOS package : It's not relocatable, even if MacOS support well
this feature. I don't found the time to finalize yet the install
relocation support in bash script. Package is not published on MacOS
store.
- MXE Windows installer : not signed, not published on Windows store.
Do not support KIO extension.

But we have a new one starting to work and i working on : FlatPak

This one is signed, published of official repository automatically
(you can install it on Discover application for ex). It support ICU
and KIO too... FlatPak is compiled on KDE infrastructure nightly and
automatically. Only a 64 bits version is supported.

This want mean that AppImage end of life is near. We will still
publish officially the AppImage until 7.0.0, but later, if FlatPak do
the job as well, AppImage will be dropped...

For Windows, all the digiKam code compile fine under Microsoft Visual
C++ compiler. This is the goal to obtain a signed and published
version on Microsoft store. You can imagine that Microsoft will only
support the official Windows compiler, and not GCC to permit to sign
and publish application on the store. Don't forget, Microsoft is well
Closed Source (:=))))

Microsoft compiler is just the hell. It slow and require a Windows
operating system. The current cross compilation solution that we use
work fully under Linux, and compilation time are reduced by 4/5 ! A
full Linux Workflow is a non virus guaranty !

The Visual C++ workflow is also only available on 64 bits and is
computed on KDE infrastructure, but the installer compilation is
broken due to a weird configuration on KDE infrastructure. I currently
try to found a work around.

Personalty, i don't want to left MXE solution for the moment.

For MacOS, the KDE infrastructure based on Craft compilation framework
will be a solution to sing and publish a relocatable package for
Apple. digiKam do not compile yet due to  missing dependencies.

Voilà, i hope to be enough clear with these technical points.

My best

Gilles Caulier